A number of people have suggested to me that i do this. Spoil my vote. Including on here. I have never done this before or ever even thought of it - never saw the point really but maybe in this case I could. I still honestly dont know. I absolutely support repealing the 8th but cannot vote to introduce abortion on demand so between a rock and a hard place.

My goodness haven't read any replies!!Spoiling a vote deliberately to me shows a total lack of ignorance and lack of education from the person doing soWomen fought that we could get a vote either choose to use it or don't!

On May 25th of May I will be voting YES. My yes will be for Sheila Hodges who's cancer treatment was stopped due to a positive pregnancy test as the treatment may be harmful to the baby, Sheila's baby was born 2 months premature and died immediately after birth. Sheila died 2 days after delivering her baby. I will be voting YES for Sheila's children who were left without their mother.

I will be voting YES for Michelle Harte, a mother of one, who became pregnant whilst receiving treatment for cancer. Although her doctors advised her to terminate the pregnancy because of the risk to her health, Cork University Hospital refused to authorise an abortion on the basis that her life was not under immediate threat'. Michelle died from cancer, her Obstetrician Louise Kenny is begging for ppl to vote yes.

I will vote YES is for Savita Halappanavar who accepted she was miscarrying and begged doctors for a termination, Savita was refused because her foetus still had a heartbeat. Savita died. If Savita had of been giving a termination when she asked she would still be alive. The inquest after Savitas death claimed the 8th played a major role in her death.

I will vote YES for Ms Y, a migrant woman who fled to Ireland, she was pregnant as result of rape, she sought an abortion on grounds of suicide. Miss Y booked a termination in the UK but was arrested at the airport. Miss Y went on a hunger strike and was force fed and lied to about the possibility of termination for months. Her baby was delivered by a forced caesarean section against her will at 25 weeks.

I will Vote YES for miss P. Miss P, was 15 weeks' gestation when declared clinically dead on December 3rd at a Dublin hospital. The nurses had to apply make up to Miss P to hide her collapsed eye sockets when her children were coming to visit. She was kept on somatic life-support treatment, despite her family's wishes to allow her dignity in death, along with her baby, that was not at viability to survive outside of the womb. Seven doctors gave evidence in court over the following 3 weeks to determine that treatment during Miss P's deteriorating condition would not have any realistic prospect for her baby to be born intact/would have no idea what kind of effects it would have on the foetus. At 17 weeks gestation, Miss P and her baby were finally able to be laid to rest.

I will Vote Yes for all those women who are told their baby's have zero chance of survival outside of the womb and are suffering and sick inside of the womb. I will Vote YES for the 12 year old girl who travelled to the UK in January after been raped. I will Vote YES for women who have lost their fallopian tubes due to Ectopic pregnancies, Yes for women who have had damage to their fertility systems due to prolonging the heart ache of miscarriage due to a an unviable heartbeat. I will vote YES for those women who never consented to Sex, Yes for women trying to escape domestic violence. I will vote yes for all those having a crisis pregnancy.

Don't spoil your vote please autumngirl. You have until 10pm to vote, wait until 9.55 if that's what it takes to make your mind up. You will always know that you voted for what you thought was the best option and that it wasn't an easy decision.

A spoilt Vote protest only ever holds weight if a very significant proportion of the voting population chose to deliberately spoil their vote. Say 40-50 %. That's simply not going to happen. So I believe a spoilt Vote is silly and pointless. In this referendum at least.

Yes I realise that now after reading up about it the idea of Spoil Votes in form of protest. But from what I can gather it is only worthwhile in terms of "protest" if a very significant proportion choose to spoil their Vote. Which just won't be the case in this referendum. But I'll happily eat my hat if I am wrong. I can't see spoilt Votes having a significant overall tally today.

Celeste1 is correct about spoiled votes being seen as the voter not being happy with what's on offer, always has been as long as I've been voting (25 years +). It's not something I've ever considered but that's how I've always viewed them.

There are lots of people undecided on this one because of the proposed legislation, autumngirl isn't alone.

These are the only two choices. There is no alternative. If you followed the referendum coverage you would know that it's either leave the eight or remove the 8th. There is no other alternative. What are you protesting for? There will never be an alternative to removing the 8th as nothing can be changed without removing the 8th.

I tell you, out of everything the last couple of weeks, this is the most disheartening thing I have seen. As a grown woman, presumably with a family of your own, and you'd rather spoil your vote in protest than challenge yourself to make a concrete choice on this referendum.

Celeste you'll be out on your own, there will not be many deliberately spoilt Votes. This referendum is Way too important to most people and way to significant to spoil their vote deliberately.

If there was any other alternative to Repeal then perhaps you would have a point. But nothing can change without repealing the 8th. So therefore a spoil Vote is absolutely insignificant.in my opinion.

Celeste I'm discussing spoilt votes irrespective of this referendum. The ultimate spoilt Vote is to Not vote at all. I can not follow your thinking on this matter at all. Leave the current referendum out of it. You actually think travelling to a polling station to deliberately spoil a Vote and thus having ZERO impact on the outcome of said Vote , has any merit??? You think this is worthwhile. I have never heard anything more ludicrous in all my life. The ultimate way to spoil a vote is to sit at home and Not Vote. You are just wasting time travelling to a polling station. Your train of thought here baffles me. Naturally as a Yes Voter myself id prefer someone spoil it or abstain , as opposed to Vote No.But as a point of principal I can not , not reply to what you have just written. Don't misunderstand me. I many trying to encourage people to Vote. I just can't let the concept that a deliberately spoilt Vote has any merit or value or exercises franchise as you said, go unchallenged

re. your post 11 autumngirl. Constitution is not legislation. It can be worded to cover legal complex issues - legislation can. That's the place to do it. You rightly say the 8th is wrong but you don't like the proposed legislation. Let your elected representatives know you don't like the proposed legislation. I think there will be several amendments to the draft legislation.

I dont get this autumngirl. Say if the Government hadn't stated their intention to introduce the 12 week limit you would have voted yes because you would be voting on what you are asked to vote on - i.e. do you believe the 8th amendment needs to be removed. So you have already decided that is the case - the 8th needs to be removed. So then the issue is what happens after that - no 8th so how do we deal with abortion. So that was always going to be down to legislation. Difficult and complex issues cannot be dealt with under a constitution as its an overarching vision or mission statement rather than a document to deal with the complex ins and outs of each situation. So if you believe that the constitution is not the place to govern termination of pregnancy then you have to accept that legislation is. The government were upfront by publishing the draft legislation. If they hadn't they'd be lambasted and also the no side would have managed to include even more scaremongering because there would be a vacuum of information that needed filling. If you are unhappy with the introduction of the 12 week limit then you need to lobby your local politician, or perhaps join a national lobby group, lobby senators (the legislation has to pass through both houses). If enough people are unhappy with the 12 week limit then the legislation can be amended as its still only in draft stage. However you do need to bear in mind that its practically impossible to deal with rape cases in any other way. Most rapes go unreported and if you say that an allegation of rape has to be lodged with the Garda then you would be putting pressure on rape victims to report. I know a few people who would say they could live with 8 weeks but not 12.

Just voted...yes.. but very reluctantly. Like many I struggled a lot with this vote option but ultimatly decided that a repeal might help some cases while a no isn't going to get rid of abortion or change the minds of women minds intent on it.

Agree Miss Bumble. My mother is not alive but I always remember her telling us as children that people died for so that we could have our Vote. People also died so that we could have our independence from The United Kingdom and currently as it stands with the 8th in place, England's abortion Law IS Ireland's abortion Law. It is time to change that.

No, you are voting on whether to remove/ amend an article in the constitution and thereby give the government the power to formulate new laws for this country surrounding pregnancy and the termination of it.

And personally i feel spoiling a vote is an insult to those people who fought for the right to vote,and all other women in this world who are still not given that right. man up,make a decision and stick to it.

Thanks Pepper2 for taking the time to post. I was voting yes but last night I was thinking to myself that I would not like abortion on demand but what you have said has really made sense and I will be voting yes but I agree with Autumngirl the goverment have totally done it wrong and has put us in a very difficult situation. They have left it very open. If as a people we had stood together and said we were not happy with the wording the goverment would have had to do something . I have a good friend who I spoke to last night and she is unsure what way to vote.

If people are unsure do you think they will vote no. One question I would like to know if somebody has a termination do they just go to the doctor to get abortion pills or do they go to a hospital for a procedure.

Maybe this is a practise I am unfamiliar with. I must ask people. I personally would not deliberately spoil a vote. I would abstain if I could not make a decision. But in 20 years no-one will ever look back and talk about spoilt Votes and their contribution, or there-lack-of.

"If you spoil your vote it is still counted and recognised as a spoilt vote, and show that you are not happy with any option given. If you choose not to vote at all, you are not voicing ANY opinion!"

Joesmom I'm not being smart but I have never heard of anyone deliberately spoiling a Vote. Other than ofcoarse as a joke, as someone said , like Dustin.

When I hear the tally of spoilt votes I would never interpret that figure as people who weren't happy with either option and spoilt it to have some voice. I interpret spoilt votes as people who didn't understand how to Vote on the ballot. I really don't think spoilt votes give anyone a voice.

Op think of it as abortion for a woman who really, really can't face having a baby whether its because she has no money, no support, is in an abusive relationship, is homeless, whatever, rather than Abortion on demand. Because that is what it is, a real life person who has made a decision that they cannot continue with a pregnancy so they 'demand' an abortion. It's such a manipulative term imo. I would never deliberately spoil a vote I would rather abstain personally.

23 or 24 countries in the EU have particular wording in law for the legislation of rape following sexual assualt

I just want to pick you up on this point, they were able to do that because the right to life of the unborn was not in their constitutions. Their legislators were able to legislate and that is what we are voting for today.

Well I'm laughing now as when I said on here last week that I would most likely not vote at all I was attacked for saying I wouldnt vote and got the lecture about how hard it was to get the right to vote and how I should vote at all costs and if I really couldnt choose then I should spoil my vote.

So I think about that for a week and then ask the question above and I am attacked over that too. My original plan was just to not vote as I cannot vote either way. I do want to repeal the 8th - its a stupid piece of legislation - however it could easily be re-drafted/re-worded. 23 or 24 countries in the EU have particular wording in law for the legislation of rape following sexual assualt and yet the Irish cant think how to do it for example..... whole thing is a minefield and I really wish they would replace the 8th with something specific and that we could vote today on changing one set of wording for another and we would all be totally clear on what we were voting for. This method simply allows for this government and any future govenment to make whatever laws they want to about abortion.